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Using Nomimal GDP to Mislead: A Bogus Reagan Wikipedia Sentence (Bill McBride, Calculated Risk)
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2015/09/using-nomimal-gdp-to-mislead-bogus.htmlNumbers are numbers. They aren't political, but sometimes people misuse numbers to mislead.
After hearing that Joe Biden might consider running for President, I looked up how old Ronald Reagan was when he was first took office (in January 1981). The first article that came up was on Wikipedia (Reagan was 69 when he took office and turned 70 a few weeks later - Biden is currently 72).
Sadly I noticed this misleading sentence in the Wikipedia article:
"[Reagan's] economic policies saw a reduction of inflation from 12.5% to 4.4%, and an average annual growth of GDP of 7.91%; while Reagan did enact cuts in domestic spending, military spending increased federal outlays overall, even after adjustment for inflation."
There are several problems with this sentence.
Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2015/09/using-nomimal-gdp-to-mislead-bogus.html#qRm0PluM8sLLR5BO.99